THE need for communication and staying connected emerged as the most dominant need during the pandemic. People who were stuck at home or were isolated from socializing remained glued to their phones because they all needed to reach out to others. Businesses that were not prepared to close or to be suspended for an extended period had to find means to reach out to its audiences in the most convenient and economical way.
In the Philippines, one company that noted a significant growth in its operations and partnerships in 2021 was leading messaging app Viber.
To think that barely 10 years ago when Viber first entered the Philippines, they only started with one-on-one chats, then they moved to group messaging, and eventually moved to video calls and group calls as well.
Today the term has almost become generic when we hear people say: “Please Viber it to me!” or “Let me add you to our Viber community group chat!” How about: “I got this from another Viber group.” One can only wonder how this phenomenal growth happened so quickly and so organically. For those who have found this to be an ever-reliable and valuable tool for communication, it is a blessing.
Personally, I witnessed how our village Viber groups ballooned into multiple categories: We had barangay community chats, residential and church organization groups, even groups of home cooks and food pasabuyers. For work, I also have my own corporate and office Viber groups with my teams and clients, and for my professional organizations as well. But the most important to me are my Viber groups with my immediate and my extended families. It’s amazing how this app has entered our lives so naturally. I would like to believe that it has definitely enhanced the way we reach one another so it is an excellent communication tool.
According to David Tse, Rakuten Viber’s Senior Director for Asia Pacific, they “owe their stronger presence in the Philippines to how they partnered with local brands and businesses while presenting them with new features of the app that help them enhance how they communicate.”
Strategic partnerships
IN the past two years, strategic partnerships have been Viber’s key driver to succeed because by the end of 2021, they recorded a 57.37-percent increase in calls, and a 31-percent growth in the use of messages. Group chats grew 17 percent while group chat messages also grew 19 percent.
Viber pursued strategic and local partnerships in response to the shifting needs of users and allowed itself to be an integral part of everyone’s day to day life, beyond the usual calls and text messages. This led to its significant growth in content collaborations across various categories like health, food, entertainment, and sports.
At the start of the pandemic, it tied up with government agencies particularly the Department of Health which created its own Viber community and a chatbot which amplified their online reach and provided crucial updates on the country’s health situation.
Viber also pursued partnerships with telecommunication companies like Globe particularly GCash to help micro, small and medium entrepreneurs on Food PH through their Negoserye webinars. They helped the MSMEs sell more with less worries using the messaging platform.
Help for small online businesses
ASIDE from partnering with the more established businesses, Viber has also been helping small independent online entrepreneurs.
According to Viber’s Business Development Manager Veronica Feleo: “Viber Communities have provided small online businesses some advantages by harnessing the power of two-way, personal conversations with their customers, while our app’s Channel feature has allowed them to open discussions with users to hear their thoughts and engage with them by enabling the comment section for each post.”
In a recent episode of Negoserye 2022 Raket @Home, for instance, the topic of the webinar was how independent online sellers (termed “raketera” and “raketero” in colloquial terms) manage to succeed in their businesses in the middle of competition and challenges. The lively discussion focused on how digital sellers have maximized the restricted conditions brought about by the pandemic to quickly adapt to the fast changing behavior of customers with the help of tools like Viber.
Viber’s 2022
GIVEN its robust performance in 2021, Viber moves into 2022 in a position of strength as it will continue to find more ways to better understand and engage Filipino users with features and local partnerships and content that resonate with them most.
The upcoming National Elections in May will be a key point of interest for Filipinos, so Viber is supporting the Filipinos’ right to vote by partnering with legitimate sources of information to help combat disinformation, which could be weaponized to influence the poll results. Viber is ensuring that it does not become a platform where fake news or misleading information is possible.
This extends to beyond election-related information. In terms of public content that users see in the Communities as well, Viber will increase moderations and resources in the country to ensure that inappropriate content is monitored and removed in a timely manner.
And of course, as restrictions are slowly being lifted and we enter a new normal, Viber will remain an integral part of the users’ lives. Pandemic or not, Viber will always remain committed in keeping people connected conveniently, creatively, and of course, securely. As David Tse summarizes it: “The pandemic has shown people how messaging apps like Viber makes things more efficient—like how it cuts business travel costs now that anyone can reach out to their colleagues in a few clicks and how educators can maximize online chats to improve relationships with their students and the parents. Even after the situation goes back to a ‘new’ normal, online communication will continue to strive, become more efficient, and change how people communicate. And these new realizations and habits will definitely influence our plans and impact our performance as a company.”
Driving Viber’s commitment to support independent online sellers is the successful NegosyoSerye series. Recently, Viber kicked off 2022 with an exciting, informative new episode, Raket@Home, in partnership with mobile payment app GCash and Globe At Home Prepaid WiFi.
In Cebu, Let’s Eat Bai launched its own Viber Community giving members exclusive access to promos and updates from their favorite local food businesses.
David Tse, Rakuten Viber Senior Director for APAC, emphasised that “partnering with local brands and businesses has allowed Viber to strengthen its presence in the Philippines while improving our connection with them.”
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior communications professionals around the world. Joy Lumawig-Buensalido is the president and CEO of Buensalido PR and Communications. She was past chairman of the Ipra Philippine chapter for two terms.
PR Matters is devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com.